Do we need ‘sexy’ bikinis for young girls?

A five year old girl wearing a $77 leopard print swimsuit posing with her hands on her hips is one of the models for British actress and model Elizabeth Hurley’s Mini Cha Cha Bikini for girls aged 18 months to 12 years. Another seven-year-old model strikes a similar pose in a skimpy cheetah print Gemini Bikini, held together in the front by a gold ring. These provide a glimpse of the rather sexy kids’ beachwear collection recently launched by Hurley that has received criticism from media, parents and the others alike, forsexualising young girls.

The website describes the Collette Bikini collection as ‘great for girls who want to look grown up.’ But at a time when there is already undue pressure on young girls, especially pre-teens and teenagers, for looking good and having a perfect body, won’t such a bikini-line set a harmful precedence? Is the line a poor attempt to ‘sexualize young girls,’ as Claude Knight, director of the UK based child protection charity Kidscape puts it? We ask parents and designers in India for their take.

‘Sexualisation of kids should not be allowed’Delhi based Rohini S Murthy, 38, a mother to a 10-year-old daughter was appalled when she read up about the launch and saw the photographs of child models in bikinis. “It sends out a very wrong message to kids who are anyway very vulnerable in this day and age. Selling bikinis for kids of that age is unthinkable.”

‘There is an appropriate age for everything’Reshma Shende, 34, who lives in Mumbai with her seven year old daughter agrees. “Why don’t they let kids be? Children need to wear kidsy stuff with cute colourful motifs. They will grow up and then when turn 18, they can do anything that they want.”

‘A bikini line for young girls is a bad idea’Ruchika Sachdeva, fashion designer who created the label Bodice says, “At that age we should not encourage little girls to want to look sexy. Girls at that age tend to get easily influenced. It's better to keep them away from such a collection. I really don't think that it's a good idea to launch a bikini line for little girls.”

Disturbing sales figuresParents and Indian designers may think that such a collection is a bad idea, but the sales figures speak otherwise. If one were to believe what a spokesman for Elizabeth Hurley has to say, then these bikinis certainly seem to be gaining popularity among parents, at least in the UK. According to Dailymail, the spokesman said that their kids’ beach collection was ‘selling extremely well in Harrods and in numerous stores’ in the US and the Middle East and that most of their customers were ‘repeat customers who report that their kids adore the designs.’